Apparatus for making tubular paper containers



Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS F OR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER. CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 1 g E. on

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APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR 2,584,542

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-SheeQS INVENTOR Jogm HENRY BROWN JR. g BY ATTORNEYS Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR 2,584,542

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 4 Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS l8 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed April 2, 194'? far v INVENTOR. JOHN HEN RY Bnowmdk.

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Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS 18 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed April 2, 1947 INVENTQR JOHN HENRY BROWN,JIZ.

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ATTORNEY 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS l8 Sheet-S-Shet 7 Filed April 2. 1947 gall/I111? INVE TOR JGHN HENRY mw- JR.

ATTORNEYS F 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR 2,584,542

APPARATUS FOR MAKINGTUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 8 ATTORNEYS Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

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APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 11 i T 482 A a E, I

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

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APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 194'? 18 Sheets-Sheet 12 VII/Ill IN NTOR M MM ATTORNEYS JOHN HEN BapwmJqz,

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APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 15 m ""1 "I w m 1! i MM. m

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ATTORNEYS Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS l8 Sheets-Sheet 14 Filed April 2, 1947 Feb. 5, 1952 J BROWN, JR 2,584,542

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet 15 //||l /A sq 32 i /1 INVENTOR Joan HENRY BszowmJrz.

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APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS l8 Sheets-Sheet 16 Filed April 2, 1947 V I/I114 JOHN HENRY BROWN, Jrz.

Feb. 5, 1952 J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Filed April 2, 1947 18 Sheets-Sheet l7 1m V///////////(4IIII'IIV///%I% INVENTOR Jon-m Hemzv BROWN,JR.

ATTO R N EY5 18 Sheets-Sheet 18 m ml u u J. H. BROWN, JR

APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS Feb. 5, 1952 Filed A r l 2, 1947 f v 1 :v mil-Mlr/ /V /A .2 Wvln 2 0 0 8 55 52 i 1 7 4 m mmmm m mm @0 42 4 nmmzmr "I- V QM "MM I- 7 M GIIIIWM WQmm Mllllllllllllllilllllllll l '."-f"- Patented Feb. 5, 1952 K APPARATUS FOR MAKING TUBULAR PAPER CONTAINERS John Henry Brown, Jr., Sands Point, N. Y., as-

signor to Lily-Tulip Cup Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application April 2, 1947, Serial No. 738,827

18 Claims. (01. 9336.1)

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for making two-piece paper or the like containers such as cups, and more especially such containers where thermoplastic adhesive is employed for the seams.

It has long been well known to join or unite paper or the like material with thermoplastic adhesives, under heat and pressure; and that such an adhesive seam has characteristics making it desirable for withstanding certain liquids and temperatures. However, it has not been found possible heretofore to utilize such knowledge in practical mass production operations ap plicable to the manufacture of individual service or relatively cheap products, such as drinking cups.

An object of this invention is to provide a method of economically making two-piece paper containers wherein the seams or joints are thermoplastic.

Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus for the rapid and economical manufacture of two-piece paper or the like containers wherein the seams or joints'are thermoplastic.

A further object of the invention is to provide an automatic machine for the manufacture of such containers.

Further objects of the invention will more fully appear from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings illustrating by way of example therpreferred embodiment of the apparatus used in carrying out the method.

The invention consists in the method herein described and in the novel features, arrangement, construction and combination of parts of the apparatus and means hereinafter described in accordance 'with certain preferred embodiments thereof; and the invention will be more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which the same reference characters indicate the same parts in the various views:

Fig. 1 (Sheet 1) is a plan view of the machine, with bottom blank forming mechanism and other parts omitted for clarity;

Fig. 2 (Sheet 2) is a vertical sectional view taken in general along line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 (Sheet 3) is a sectional plan view taken in general along line 3-3 of Fig. 2 and showing bottom blank forming mechanism;

Fig. 4 (Sheet 4) is a vertical sectional elevation showing the main horizontal drive shaft Fig. 5 (Sheet 5) is a plan view partly in section showing intermittent Geneva gear drive;

Fig. 6 (Sheet 6) is a side elevation showing the body web feed viewed from the right of Fig. l;

Fig. 7 (Sheet 7) is a side elevation partly in section showing prefolding mechanism and body blanking dies and blank feed;

Fig. 8 (Sheet 6) is a side elevation-of a cam and follower for actuating a pusher for feeding a body blank (station I) Fig. 9 (Sheet 7) is a plan view of a body blank in flat condition with adhesive applied;

Fig. 10 (Sheet 8) is a view similar to Fig. 7

' but with the parts shown at the end of a blank feed stroke;

Fig. 11 (Sheet 9) is a sectional view taken at line I ll I of Fig. 7 showing the body blank prefolding mechanism;

Fig. 12 (Sheet 10) is a vertical sectional view taken at O -I2 of Fig. 1, showing cooperation of male and female dies at station II;

Fig. 13 (Sheet 8) is a side elevation showing the turret lift cam and follower;

Fig. 14 (Sheet 11) is a vertical sectional view taken at line |4I4 of Fig. 3 showing punching and drawing mechanism for forming a bottom blank from a strip;

Fig. 15 (Sheet 11) is a side elevation showing further details of strip feed mechanism of Fig. 14;

' Fig. 16 (Sheet 12) is a side elevation showing further particulars of the drive for the bottom forming mechanism of Figs. 1445;

Fig. 17 (Sheet 12) is a plan view, partly in section, showing further details of the mechanism for transferring a formed bottom blank;

Fig. 18 (Sheet 5) is a vertical sectional view taken at O -lB of Fig. 1 (station 111) showing the bottom disk plunger;

Fig. 19 (Sheet 13) is a side elevation of the cup bottom spinning mechanism (station III) Fig. 20 (Sheet 13) is a vertical sectional view taken through the axis of Fig. 19 and showing further details of the mechanism of Fig. 19 on a somewhat larger scale;

Fig. 21 (sheet'l l) is a side elevational view showing certain features of the cup bottom rolling mechanism (station IV) Fig. 22 (Sheet 14) is a vertical sectional view taken on line 22-22 of Fig. 21 and substantially on the line 22-22 of Fig. 1 and showing further details of the mechanism of Fig. 21 on a somewhat larger scale;

Fig. 23 (Sheet 15) is a segmental view of a cup in vertical section showing the bottom seam resulting from the operation at station IV;

Fig. 24 (Sheet 16) is a vertical sectional view taken on line -24 of Fig. 1 (station V) showing the bottom squeezing mechanism;

Fig. 25 (Sheet 9) is a side elevation of an actuating cam drive for the bottom squeezing mech-- anism of Fig. 24;

Fig. 26 (Sheet 17) is a vertical sectional view taken on line O26 of Fig. 1 (station VII showing the cup push-out to beader mechanism Fig. 27 (Sheet 18) is a vertical sectional view taken on line 21-21 of Fig. 1 (stations VIIA and VIIB) showing the cup rim beading and discharge; and V Fig. 27a is a vertical sectional view showing further details of parts shown in Fig. 27.

GENERAL OUTLINE In general the invention contemplates the making of paper or the like containers, such as paper drinking cups, from body blanks provided on one surface with a marginal stripe or band of thermoplastic adhesive disposed along one end and the :bottom edge of said blank; said adhesive coating is preferably printed on the blank and is allowed to dry or become non-tacky prior to the feeding of the blanks to the apparatus for making the cups. Preferably, said adhesive stripes are applied in proper register on a web of material which is also given an over-all heat resistant coating. In the present embodiment of the invention the web is fed forward and the blanks are successively punched from the vertically disposed web by blanking dies.

The blanks are successively fed by a pusher in .a direction normal to the axis of a shell or receptacle which forms part of a blank prefolding mechanism which is locatedin a fixed position at what willbe termed station I (Fig. 1). Other instrumentalities for completing the formation of the body of the cup, and supplying and assembling therewith the bottom of the cup, are arranged in a circular path-about a common center 0 with their respective axes in fixed position at respective of a plurality of stations which will be designated II, III, IV, V, VI and VII, and an idle station designated VIII is included in the circular series. Beading and discharge stations VIIA and VIIB are disposed in a second circular path about an axis offset from the axis of station VII for forming a beaded lip on the 'cup and for "discharging the finished cup to suitable stacking mechanism. A plurality of female body forming dies, equal in number to said first eight stations, 1

are "supported on a common carrier or turret mounted for intermittent rotation about the vertical axis at O and are arranged to fall into successive register with respective of said stations as the carrier is intermittently rotated in a clockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 1. The female dies act as holders for the cups during fabrication. I

Relative to the usual frustro-conical receptacles with which the invention is primarily concerned, the body blanks of which are of general arch form, I have found that whena blank is engaged intermediate its ends and'fed in a direction transverse to its plane and intoa prefolding receptacle of generally circular or other substantiall closed cross-section the-opposite ends adjacent the upper or greater arcuate dimension of the blank have an inherent tendency to drop'downwardly in-overlapping relation and in such prefol'ded position the blank may then .be delivered from said .pre-

folding shell into a female die. However, where the angle of taper of the receptacle is slight, as in soda cups (Fig. 9) where the arch of the blank is relatively shallow, I have found it preferable to use a tapered prefolding receptacle and a tucking finger therein to cause a progressive increase :in the'overlap of theopposite end as the blank is fed toward and through the smaller end of the tapered shell and into the female die. In the present illustrative embodiment apparatus is shown for making the soda cup type of container where a tapered prefolding shell is shown as preferable; but it is to be understood that in its broader aspects the invention is not thus limited.

A blank is first fed into said prefolding receptacle in 'a direction transverse to its axis and is then moved axially thereof to prefold the blank to bring its opposite marginal ends in proper overlapped position. The prefolded blank passes through the lower open end of said receptacle and into one .of said plurality 'of female body forming dies which is then positioned in axial alignment with said prefolding receptacle at station I. The carrier is then moved step bystep so that the female die .bearing the preformed blank is progressively moved into axial alignment with successive of said stations at eachof which it is held at rest while progressive steps in the manufacture of said cup are preformed in the manner now to be briefly outlined: it being noted that after a given female die has passed through the operations in completing theformation of the body and the cup is discharged therefrom said female die is moved back to station I for receiving another blank and the cycle is repeated. It is further noted that the female dies are suitably heated in zones corresponding to the adhesive seams and provision is also .made:for controlling the temperature at 'thesezones so as to prevent delamination of the joints during certain stages of operation. In general, male dies and other instrumentalities which cooperate with the female dies at respective stations are located at fixed axes for movement in an axial direction into co.- operative engagement with the cups or parts thereof during theavarious stages of manufacture.

At station II the female die bearing the prefolded body blank is disposed in axial register with a cooperating male .die or plunger mandrel which reciprocatesaxia'lly to press the body blank into form between said male and female .di'es; heat suppliedadjacent the adhesive stripe having softened the same to form the side wall .adhesive joint or seam.

- Atstation III the side wall is disposed in .suitable register with :bottom forming mechanism where a flanged bottom is inserted within the body, from the upper open end, with the flange of the bottom extending downwardly and positioned adjacent the lower marginal edge of the cup body member. The lower marginal edge of the body is then spun or folded over said downwardly extending fiange of the bottom member. In the present embodiment, the bottom member which is supplied at this station .is punched from a continuous stripof stock and is drawn to flanged shape and the formed bottom is fed laterally into axial alignment where it is engaged by the lower end of a cooperating positioning plunger on which it is held by suction and the plunger reciprocates downwardly to evenly seat the bottom in the formed body 'ldlSpOSEd within the female die and when the bottomis properly located a suitable .spinning :die is moved upwardly against the lower edge of the body to'fold. the same upwardly 

